Legislating 101: The end-of-session sausage making

Dispatches from Planet Albany

Two bills - one imposing a controversial waste reduction mandate and the other a broadly supported employee benefit update - successfully made it through the state Senate in the waning days of the legislative session in June, but didn't end up coming up for a vote in the Assembly.

Both of these measures were expected to make it to the governor's desk, so we explored what happened.

Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Pete Harckham, a Westchester County Democrat, talks about the effort to curb plastic packaging waste and Assembly Labor Committee Chair Harry Bronson, a Rochester-area Democrat, discusses the legislation increasing short-term paid medical leave.